The Avengers: Weekend Initiative
by Betony
Summary: A small story where a competition leads some lucky winner to spending the weekend at the Avengers Base.
1. Chapter 1

Tony Stark was an Avenger. Tony Stark was a genius. Tony Stark was hosting a party. Tony Stark was also a little bit drunk when he declared a proton blast competition to determine which lucky guest would get to spend the weekend with the Avengers.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose, the blond absolutely _seething_. "Stark, you have got to be kidding me!"

But the brunet in question was so sloshed, the soldier might as well have been talking to a toddler. Tony shrugged his shoulders, hands gesturing to the courtyard of his Virginia mansion. "What? Is' not like they'r gonna make it or whatever. And even if they do, they _deserve_ to spend the day with us."

Tony was hosting a charity event in Virginia, something about science (Steve wasn't paying attention, he was too busy dodging bullets when Stark invited the team to the party during a _battle_ ), drank too much and thought it'd be a fun idea to let the guests try out his suits proton blasters in a sort of 'spend the weekend with the Avengers' competition. One of Stark's proton gauntlets got out and the goal was to shoot at a pineapple 1760 yards away.

Most of the members were present, save for Bucky, Vision, Wanda and Falcon, the aforementioned heroes on-call and half way across the world, helping apprehend a highly sought after terrorist leader. T'challa couldn't attend because he was a King, and there was no way Tony was going to add on to the mans already busy schedule. Dr. Strange didn't consider himself an Avenger, so Tony didn't bother asking if he would attend.

Clint was leaning over the ledge with a grin on his face, watching a man struggle with operating the gauntlet, despite Rhodes supervising the whole thing. "Come on Cap, it's a party, loosen up. These guys are rich trust fund babies, I doubt they ever shot a gun in their lives, much less a proton glove."

"But what if someone _does_ manage to shoot it, what then?" Bruce paced back and forth, trying to keep his stress levels down, but with Caps aggravation, and untrained civilians handling high tech weaponry, it was a slippery slope. "We can't seriously give them the okay to hang out with us for the day, it's idiotic. Our jobs are dangerous, we can't bring them with us."

Natasha shrugged, sipping her glass of scotch. "Why not? If they're skilled enough to shoot a target that small a mile away, they could help us take down enemies from a distance."

Barton rose his hand, "I'll keep an eye on them if they're not annoying."

Tony chuckled while Nat smirked, Bruce shook his head and Steve frowned. "This is serious guys." Blue eyes focused on the brunet staring down at a poor sucker flying back from the unexpected force of the gauntlets blast. "Call it off Stark."

Tony tilted his head at his comrades command. "What?" He sighed, clearly annoyed.

"I said call it off!"

A chorus of cheers and claps interrupted the two from engaging further. Instead all members turned their attention back to the courtyard to find Rhodes and a woman in a waiter uniform stare forward into the courtyard in shared awe.

Barton was the first to speak, the dirty blond man giving a low whistle, squinting into the distance with a bemused grin. "She hit that thing dead center."

The lucky server grinned, her pink lips spreading in joy as her brown eyes glimmered excitedly. Rhodes took away the gauntlet as she straightened the wrinkles in her white button down. "Did I hit it?"

Scratching the back of his neck, the dark skinned man blinked owlishly. "Uh, yeah. You did."

The brunette grinned, "Dude no way! Awesome!" She turned away from the man, pulling out her phone. "I gotta call my mom, she is gonna _flip!_ "

Tony smiled broadly, gesturing to the retreating girl. "Look at that, we made someone's night, and you _still_ want to take that away from her?"

Steve responded by simply glaring at the man, arms crossed.

A tense silence passed before Stark rolled his eyes. "Ugh, fine! I'll go crush the girls soul."

Walking through the crowd, Tony asked one of the servers where the girl was but was surprised to hear that her shift already ended 30 minutes ago and she just went up to the gauntlet before going home.

He may not have found the girl, but he got a name and later, an address. Allison Warden was her name, and she lived in a middle class apartment building outside of Norfolk.

Flying up to her apartment was no problem, he already had a plan in mind. Fly in, tell her she did good, tell her she couldn't hang out with the Avengers, then leave. Easy.

The first problem that occurred was when he opened the door, a toddler answered. The girl appeared to be no older than three had shoulder length curly dark brown hair, dark brown eyes and tanned skin. She wore a pink nightgown with a rainbow unicorn logo and held a stuffed Superman doll under one arm.

The girl stared up at Iron Man, mouth hanging open in shock before squealing and slamming the door closed. "Ally! Ally, Iron Man is here! Iron Man is here!" He heard her shout from behind the door, then more high pitched squealing.

"What?! Iron Man!" A young boy shouted, followed by the door being yanked open and another small child, a seven-year-old boy with close cropped hair, stared up at Tony in shock. "... It really is Iron Man!"

A second little girl, appearing five peeked from behind the older boy, with back length dark brown hair and pursed lips. "What's _he_ doing here?" The girl grumbled, glaring up at Stark.

Tony was taken aback by their response, as it was atypical; usually kids were happy to see him.

A door yanked open from within the apartment, and a soaking wet woman dashed from around the corner, wrapped in a red and black plaid robe. "Jessie! Nadia! Malik! Do not let anyone in!"

The older girl stepped around the boy, taking the door in hand as she furrowed her brows at the gold and red suited man. "Go away!" and the door was slammed.

Tony took the time to step out of his suit, adjusting his cuffs while waiting for the door to open once more, hearing the conversation within and forcing himself from smiling.

"Nadia!" He heard Allison chastise. "That was very rude, you don't slam doors in peoples face!"

"You said not to let him in," he heard the child, Nadia argue back.

"Yeah, but you slammed the door in his face."

"I don't care. I don't like him."

A pause. "Just... Malik, take your sisters to bed, please, I'll be with you guys in a minute."

"But what if he takes you away? Like he did with mommy?" The boy argued, causing Tony to pause and his heart to clench. What did the kid mean by that?

He didn't hear what Allison told the boy, and a moment later the door opened, with a wet headed Allison answering the door. She blinked in surprise at the man. "They were not kidding, holy crap, Iron - I mean, Mr. Stark, at my door."

Allison was fair skinned compared to the tiny tanned munchkins, but had the same dark brown hair and eyes. She was of average height, average weight and just, average for a woman in her early twenties, dripping wet in a bath robe.

Tony put on a tiny smirk. "Well believe it or not, I get that a lot."

Quick light footsteps were heard before the five-year-old girl, Nadia, came up beside Allison, brandishing a lime green water gun pistol. "I don't like you, go away!"

"Nadia!" Malik screeched, running from around the corner, taking his little sister by the arm and staggered back from the pair, Allison shaking her head in embarrassment while Tony looked down at his Armani suit. Luckily the liquid was just water and wouldn't ruin the suit too much.

"Typically not in the form of toddlers," Tony chuckled, trying to alleviate the situation.

Allison shook her head, "I am _so sorry_ about that, she knows better but can be... well, a bit of a dick."

A surprised jolt of laughter passed the brunets lips before he smothered it behind his hand. "Never really heard anyone call their own children 'dicks' before."

Tony quirked his brow when the brown eyed woman quickly shook her head in denial. "OH no, they're not mine. I'm just watching them for the weekend until my mom - they're grandma - get's back from visiting family back home and... you didn't come here to hear me rambling about that, did you?"

"Not really, but that is a fascinating story." Tony snapped his fingers, pointing to the interior of her apartment. "You mind if I come in?"

Allison stepped back, opening the door wider. "Yes, of course - I mean, not at all, come in."

Stepping out from the temperate Virginian summer night into the relatively cool apartment, Tony surveyed the area. Now that he was inside the apartment, he saw that the corner where Allison came from earlier and where the children scurried off to was a bedroom, and the door across from it was another bedroom with a bathroom next to it. He currently stood in a seven by ten living room with a sky blue three seater couch, a lounge chair, and to his right was a kitchenette.

The floor was littered with toys, large Lego pieces, books and foam swords.

A creak of a door was heard and Stark looked up to see all three children staring at him with varying expressions of curiosity and fear.

Allison saw this as well and sighed. "Guys, seriously? Go to bed." Her tone brokered no room for debate and the children quickly shut the door. "Again, sorry about them."

"They don't seem to like me," Tony pointed out lightly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

The brown eyed girl sighed, running a hand through her damp hair. "They just have a bad experience with-" She stopped, shaking her head and walking into the kitchenette. "It's nothing; they're kids, they just don't trust strangers."

"They don't trust strangers or they just don't trust me?" Tony quipped, watching they women tense before sagging.

Allison turned to face the man, crossing her arms as she seemed to struggle with what to say; her eyes darted from Stark to the room back to Stark again, licking her lips in contemplation. Eventually she spoke in a soft tone, "They were at the Stark Expo when... During the fight, they lost their mother and got hurt real bad."

Tony felt the color in his face drained, recalling the fight with Vanko and imagining the children involved in such a thing. "Oh." The billionaire coughed, darting his eyes away from the woman, looking everywhere but at her to gather his thoughts before looking back. "I'm sorry-"

She stopped him with a lift of her hand and a small smile. "It's not your fault, I know that but the kids... They're just kids, they don't know any better." She took a breath, "What happened happened, you're not here for that, you're here for something else, right?" She forced a grin on her face. "You here about my winning a chance to visit the Avengers for the weekend, right?"

Tony nodded, rubbing the back of his neck, thankful for the subject change, but struggling to implement his plan after hearing those kids stories. "Yeah..."

"Great! Because I got an idea," Allison walked over to Stark. "I don't want the Avengers thing."

The man blinked. "Uh, what?"

The brunette shrugged. "Yeah, I want to give it to my nieces and nephew."

Tony stepped back, raising his hands. "Again - what?"

Allison rose her hands in response to his incredulous tone. "Okay, hear me out. Yeah, they don't like you - scratch that, they are _terrified_ of Iron Man, but this gives them the chance to see Iron Man first hand as a good guy. Someone to look up to and not be afraid of. They love the Avengers, Malik has little figurines of each one of them, Nadia even draws pictures of Black Widow, once they see how the Avengers treat you as a friend, they could start seeing you as a friend too."

The brunet stepped back again, "I don't know." This was not turning out the way he wanted to, and Tony didn't think he had the willpower to deny this woman. She just seemed so honest and desperate to get these kids to like him, which he doesn't see himself arguing with.

Sensing his hesitance, Allison pushed on, scrunching her brows. "Please. All the news says about you guys is shitty things and how you blow buildings - that's no way for them to see you, not again. They need to know first hand that you are a protector and a genuinely good person."

That was a blow Tony couldn't deny. Slumping in defeat, he tried to argue, "What we do is dangerous work."

"I know you can defend them, just - I don't want them to live their lives scared of the very person helping defend our freedom."

Early the next day, Tony got a call on his phone while riding the Limo back from the airport from Virginia to New York, heading to the Avengers Base. Of course it was Steve, probably making sure he canceled the 'Avengers for a Weekend' thing.

Answering the call, Steve was the first to speak. "Tony, did you talk to that girl like I asked?"

"More like ordered me, yeah I did," Tony replied, scrolling through his messages, while glancing to his left.

"How'd that go?" the super soldier sounded a tiny bit guilty, but Tony could've been imagining it.

Taking another glance to his left in the limo, Tony met the gazes of three sets of dark brown eyes staring (one of them glaring) back at him. "About that..."

* * *

 **So in writing this, I realized the timeline is completely off. With the kids being as young as they are, they realistically wouldn't recall Iron Man on their own, but I figured... time for some time altering! The events from Iron Man to the Avenger AoU happened real quick, so everyone has been super busy, no rest of the wicked.**

 **Just to give ya'll some idea of the kids ages (and to remind myself in later chapters to keep the ages consistent). The children are as follows:**

 **Malik: 6 yrs.**

 **Nadia: 4 yrs.**

 **Jessie: 2 yrs.**


	2. Chapter 2

Steve stood outside the Avengers compound, arms crossed, body tense, and face set in a terrifying scowl. Next to him stood Natasha to his right and Wanda to his left, Vision standing on the Sokovians other side.

"Out of all the stupid things Tony has done in the past, this has got to take the cake," Natasha grumbled, hands on her hips as she waited alongside the super soldier.

"Taking in kids," Steve shook his head, clenching his fists when he saw the Limo finally pass the gate and approach. "What was he thinking?"

Wanda tilted her head, brows scrunched in contemplation. "From what he said, the children fear Iron Man. He does not want the children afraid of him."

Vision glanced to Captain America with a nod. "It is better to solve a child's trauma early on, otherwise they'll associate anyone dealing with Iron Man as a threat as well."

As soon as the Limo came to a stop, Tony stepped out of the car, followed by a young tanned boy with cropped dark brown hair, a gray T-shirt with panda print and clutching a stuffed Batman toy to his chest.

The boy kept his distance from the man, but kept close to the Limo, watching as a slightly younger girl struggle to climb out.

"Do you need some help, Nadia?" Tony implored, reaching out for the girl, only to receive a seething glare and a pointer finger.

"You don't touch me, I don't like you. I'm a big girl." And then proceeded to hop out with a slight stumble. The girl had her hair up in a simple pony tail that reached her shoulders, a pastel purple shirt with orange polka-dots and stripped leggings.

Then a third child popped up, younger than the other, and hesitating to step out the vehicle. This girl had curly hair in a side ponytail, wearing the same outfit as the elder, but with a sparkly skirt and clutching a Superman doll.

After a while of waiting, Tony sighed, picking up the child by the underarms. "Alright kid, let's go."

Not even a second after he lifted her, the tiny child growled at him, kicking her tiny legs and twisting in his grasp until he finally let her go. The tiny child glared up at Stark with a vengeance. "Don't touch me!"

The older sister stepped up to Tony, pointing at him again, "You don't touch my sister, that's not nice!"

It was then the boy glared up at the man, but spoke calmly. "She didn't want your help, that's why they're yelling at you. Because you touched her when she didn't want to."

Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair. "She was taking a long time to leave the car, I had to help her."

"Yeah but - but - but um, she didn't want your help, so you can't touch her," Nadia argued back with her flawless toddler logic.

The brunet only sighed, giving up on rationalizing with toddlers. "Alright, fine, let's just get your stuff." Looking up, Tony smirked when he saw the group standing there. "Oh hey guys, thanks for the welcome party." He gestured to the kids, who were already walking up to the four. "These are the kids who 'won'. Malik, Nadia, and Jessica Ruiz. Guys, meet some of the Avengers."

Steve couldn't help smiling down at the children, softening at their varying expressions of awe. Uncrossing his arms, the blond gave a light wave, "Hi there, I'm Steve."

Nat was next, kneeling in front of the trio with a soft smile and unusually warm eyes. "Hiya cuties, I'm Natasha, but you can call me Nat."

Nadia blinked, shaking her head, ponytail swinging. "No you're not."

Everyone blinked, Nat included, at that sure statement. "I'm not?"

"No, you're Black Widow."

The spy chuckled, "Yeah, I'm Black Widow."

Wanda stepped up to the kids, continuing the introductions. "I'm Wanda, and this is my friend, Vision."

The older girl seemed to be the bravest as she blinked up at the unusual pair blankly. "We don't know you."

Vision tilted his head at that, while Wanda laughed, her face feeling flushed. "You don't?"

The three of them shook their heads, shuffling closer to Black Widow when Tony finally spoke. "Well, now that you met some of the gang, want to see where you'll be staying?"

The boy, Malik furrowed his brows, moving to stand behind Steve, with the girl moved behind Widow, Nadia being the only one openly glaring with Jessie clutched the redheads arm.

Tony sighed at this, forcing himself to keep that camera ready smile, but Steve and the others saw the toll this was having on the man mentally. With kids this young, hating him, it already ruins his crumbling sense of self-worth.

"Alright Iron Man," Steve grinned, moving to swing an arm around the other shoulders, "Let's give these little guys the grand tour."

The three children gawked at the display, thoroughly confused and could only stare when Black Widow - their idol - stood to join. "Yup, your right, pal," She linked arms with the brunet as she smiled down at the kids softly. "You guys ready?"

Nadia lost her glare and squinted curiously, Jessie was too young to care and walked up to Nat to hold her hand and Malik appeared lost. "But - but... He's a meanie!" The boy exclaimed. "He... He's..."

"He is our friend," Vision knelt by the boy, staring at the boy with understanding. "Iron Man is our friend, and he helps people, he helps us help people."

"He took mommy and dada!" Nadia rebuked, going up to Stark with fury. "You took my dada! I want my dada!"

Malik shook his head at Vision. "Iron Man doesn't help..." He trailed off stepping back from the machine.

Tony swallowed, kneeling to the girl. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry I took your dad, and your mom, and hurt you. But, please, I promise that won't happen to you again. Not again."

Nadia grimaced at the apology while Malik stepped up to the man. "Can you give back our dada?"

Stark shook his head, turning way from the kids. "No. I... I can't do that. Your dad and mom they're... in a better place."

"Where?" The boy asked.

The billionaire looked to the boy, then the two girls, catching their eyes before continuing. "Somewhere safe."

Malik nodded, accepting the answer despite not fully understanding.

Jessie nodded as well, following her brother, but copied her sisters body language.

Nadia puffed her cheeks before crossing her arms. "I don't like you," she grumbled petulantly.

Stark puffed a laugh. "Yeah, figured as much." Grunting to stand, the man took a few steps. "Now let's go see your rooms."

As the group made their way through the building, Nadia moved so she stood between Tony and Natasha and when they reached the stairs, she didn't complain when Stark took her hand to guide her safely up.


End file.
